LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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THE 

INDUSTRIAL CATECHISM, 

TREATIXO OP 

MANUFACTURES, AGRICULTURE, 

THEIR PRODUCTS, MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTS, 

WEALTH, MINERALS, METALS, 

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, 

WITH MANY OTHER THIN68 PROPER TO BE KNOWN. 



" FOR THE USE OP SCHOOLS. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED BY A. H. MERYWEATHER, 

IT. B. CORNKB THIRD ARD ABCB PRISTS. 

Bicking & Guilbert, Printers, No. 66 North Third Street. 
1849. 



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Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thou- 
sand eight hundred and forty-nine, hy A. H. Meryweather, in 
the Clerk's OfBce of the District Court of the* Eastern Dis- 
trict of Pennsylvania. 






^ PREFACE. 

The preparation of this small work for the young 
was undertaken from a belief that a work of the kind 
would be found both serviceable as a school book, and 
advantageous to parents, and others having the difficult 
€lnd important duties of instructors to discharge. The 
outline and a proportion of the subjects were obtained 
from a work of London publication, which it was first 
contemplated to republish, with som6 trifling revisal, but 
on examination it was found, that, as a portion was 
inapplicable to the purpose, much to be discarded, and 
additional matter substituted, other parts were sus- 
ceptible of amendment, while the whole needed ar- 
rangement. The work was therefore to be rewritten. 
In performance of this task it has been an endeavour to 
lay before the reader such subjects as are presented to the 
wondering minds of the young, at every step they advance 
in life. It has also been no less an aim to enforce upon 
their minds the paramount importance of industry and 
the industrial arts, to elevate labour and to inculcate a 
respect for the creators and producers — the bees in the 
social compact. Believing that industry is the true and 
only alchemy that can transmute the common materials 
of mother earth into the pure gold of plenty, peace and 
prosperity ! 

It will be found in many instances that questions are 
introduced where they have no essential connection with 



IV PREFACE. 



the subject under discussion, in this the ordinary course 
of oral instruction has been pursued where incidental 
occasions often occur to inform upon a point, inculcate 
a lesson, or state a fact, which, if left unimproved, may 
be neglected or forgotten. 

The statistics have been obtained from reliable 
authority, chiefly McCulloch and Taylor, and nothing 
has been stated without diligent enquiry and research. 

A. H. M. 

Philadelphia, August, 1849. 



1 



C^ ,^x, «CP i:s C^ IKl a ^ s:c2 



Manufacturing Products. 

Q. What are manufactures ? 

A. All articles produced by labor, from 
raw, or other materials. 

Q. What is their intent, and purpose? 

A. To supply the^ necessities, the comforts 
and luxuries of life ; comprising clothing, 
furniture, tools and utensils. 

Q. Of what is clothing made ? 

A. It is made of wool, flax, hemp, cotton, 
silk, fur, leather, and of straw and grass. 
One or more of these materials, compose all 
the articles with which we clothe our bodies* 

Q, What is wool ? 

A. The fleecy covering of the sheep, and 
is cut, yearly, from the animal while alive, 
which is called shearing. 

Q. How many operations does wool pass 
through, in making it into cloth ? 

A. No less than twenty-six ; ten before it 
is cloth, and sixteen in finishing. 
1 



6 

Q. Where are woolen cloths chiefly manu- 
factured ? 

A. In England, France, and Belgium, in 
Europe and in the United States, principally 
at Lowell, Massachusetts, in Rhode Island, 
in Connecticut and in Pennsylvania. 

Q. Where is the wool chiefly grown ? 

A. The finest is grown in Saxony, but 
much is also produced in Spain and in Eng- 
land, in Australia and the United States. 

Q, What is worsted ? 

A. It is hard twisted woolen thread, spun 
from the wool of a sheep that has been comb- 
ed. 

Q. What is cotton ? 

A. A soft downy substance, produced in 
pods on a tree that grows in warm chmates. 

Q. What size is the tree ? 

A. About the size of a currant bush. The 
pods or capsules are packed close with cot- 
ton, in which its small seeds are imbedded 
in the centre. 

Q. How many kinds are there ? 

A. There are three. The nankeen, the 
green seed, and the black seed, or sea island. 
The black seed is the best, and has the long- 
est fibres for spinning. 

Q. Where is cotton chiefly grown ? 

A. In the southern portion of the United 



States, namely, in the Carolinas, Georgia, 
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, 
Mississippi, Tennessee, parts of Missouri and 
Kentucky, and in Texas. It is also grown 
in Egypt, Brazil and the East Indies. 

Q. Are not great quantities of cotton used ? 

A. Yes. In 1848, there was grown in the 
United States, 1,066,000,000 of pounds, val- 
ued at $74,500,000. Great Britain im- 
ports above 300,000,000 pounds annually. 

Q. Is more cotton manufactured than 
wool, flax, or silk ? 

A. Yes ; 4 times as much as wool, 8 times 
the amount of flax for linen, and 50 times as 
silk. 

Q. What is flax ? 

A. The stalks of the flax plant, the fibres 
of which are separated into thin threads, by 
softening in water and beating them, they 
are then dried and combed, to separate the 
coarser parts from the finer. The flax seed 
used as medicine is the seed of this plant, 
and is called linseed. 

Q. What is hemp ? 

A. A production hke flax, but obtained 
from a plant that grows larger and coarser, 
and in common with flax, much resembhng 
the common nettle- Coarse linens are made 



8 

from it, as well as ropes, cables, twine and 
cordage. 

Q. What is linen ? 

A. Cloth made from flax, or hemp; the 
flax is spun into threads and woven into 
cloth. 

Q. Where is linen chiefly manufactured ? 

A. In the north of Ireland, in the Nether- 
lands or Holland, and in Russia, where the 
flax is principally cultivated, the plant grows 
about 2 feet high and has a slender stalk. 

Q. What is silk ? 

A. The web or cocoon of a peculiar cater- 
pillar, commonly called the silk worm, which 
feeds on the leaves of the mulberry tree. 

Q. What is the cocoon ? 

A. It is the shell or bed which the cater- 
pillar spins and encloses itself in, when en- 
tering the chrysalis or torpid state, where it 
remains till its change to a butterfly. 

Q. How are these cocoons made into silks ? 

A. The fibres after slight preparations are 
united, from four to fourteen together, and 
spun into thread and then wove into various 
elegant fabrics. 

Q. Where are silk fabrics chiefly tnade ? 

A. At London, Macclesfield and Man- 
chester in England, at Lyons, in France, 
and parts of Italy and India. 



9 

Q. What is leather ? 

A. The skins of various animals^ the hair 
of which is taken off, and tanned and other- 
wise dressed, to suit the various purposes. 

Q. What is tanning ? 

A. It is expeUing the grease and making 
the skin more compact and tough, by the 
apphcation of astringents- It is done by put- 
ting them in pits, with water and oak bark, 
broken up small, where remaining for some 
time, the hide is converted to leather. 

Q. What is morocco leather ? 

A, It is goat skin, dressed very soft and 
highly colored and glazed, and was jfirst in 
use by the Moors in Morocco. 

Q. What is parchment ? 

A. It is sheep skin dressed in such man- 
ner as to approach as near as possible to the 
appearance of paper, for which it is substi- 
tuted, for purposes where great durability is 
requisite: as the writing of deeds, wills and 
charters. It was invented at Pergamos. 

Q. What is vellum ? 

A. Vellum is a finer kind of parchment 
made of calf skin. 

Q. Of what is furniture made ? 

A. Principally of wood. Mahogany, rose 
wood, cherry, maple, oak and pine, with the 



10 

hair of animals for seats and mattresses, and 
feathers for beds. 

Q. Of what are utensils made ? 

A, Of china ware, crockery and stone 
ware and glass, and of several metals, of iron,' 
tin, copper and brass, and occasionally of 
gold and silver, and wood. 

Q. What is china ware ? 

A. It is a beautiful article, white and semi- 
transparent, manufactured from a white clay 
and flint ground to powder. The art is origi- 
nally from China, but is now in extensive 
use in France and England, it is called por- 
celain, from porcellanna, the name given to 
it by the Portuguese. 

Q. What is crockery, or queensware ? 

A. It is an inferior or imitative kind of por- 
celain, possessing less of the vitrifiable, or 
glass making ingredient, flint, and thus much 
less transparent and delicate. The clay 
and flint is washed and purified, and knead- 
ed into a stiff* paste, it is then formed into 
various vessels, and dried and baked almost 
to melting, in a furnace. 

Q. How is the glazing put on ? 

A. The vessels are taken out of the fur- 
nace and dipped into a mixture of water, 
pulverised flint and glass, and white lead, 



a 

this melts witli the heat and forms a coating 
of glass. 

Q. Where is it manufactured ? 

A. In Staffordshire, in England, at a dis- 
trict called the Potteries, and at Worcester; 
nearly the whole population being engaged 
in forming clay into vessels, from the com- 
monest and cheapest to the most costly and 
elegant. 

Q. What is glass ? 

A. Glass is a hard, and when pure, per- 
fectly transparent substance obtained from 
that portion of earth's material called silex, 
of which flint is its general and most pure 
form. Flint when in thin pieces is slightly 
transparent, and when melted and purified 
by the chemical action of alkaline salts and 
metallic oxides, is glass. 

Q. Describe its manufacture more par- 
ticularly ? 

A. The ingredients to form glass generally 
used, are sea sand, which is flint in small 
particles, potash and red lead, the sand is 
the vitrifiable ingredient or that which forms 
the glass, the potash is the flux enabling the 
sand to melt, and the red lead gives greater 
solidity, greater power of refracting light, 
greater lustre, greater ductility and less lia- 
bility to break from sudden heat or cold. 



12 



Q. How is it formed into the various arti- 
cles in common use ? 

A. When in a melted state it is blown at 
the end of a tube, as children blow bladders 
from soap and water, and while soft moulded 
into bottles or glasses at will. 

Q. Of what are tools made ? 

A. Principally of iron and steel. 

Q. Of what and how is iron manufactured ? 

A. It is dug from the earth as coarse iron 
stone, and smelted in vast furnaces called 
blast furnaces, it is then cast into lumps 
which are called pig iron, or wrought into 
bars and then called bar iron. 

Q. What is steel ? 

A. It is iron refined and hardened by a 
process called cementation which was jfirst 
practised at Sheffield, in England. 

Q. What is that process ? 

A. Bars of iron are placed in a box of 
iron with layers of charcoal powder between 
them, the box is then closed and put in a 
furnace with a number of flues to it, and 
subjected to a powerful heat for eight or nine 
days, it is then gradually cooled and becomes 
steel. This is called blistered steel and is 
composed of 99 parts iron, and 1 part car- 
bon. 



13 

Q. Where and in what amount is iron 
produced ? 

A. In 1845, there was produced through- 
out the world near 4,500,000 tons ; of this 
Great Britain produced - 2,200,000 tons, 
United States " - - 502,000 « 
France " - 448,000 « 

Russia " - - 400,000 " 

Prussia " - 300,000 « 

the remaining 650,000 tons in the other 
parts of Europe ? 

Q. Is not the production of iron much de- 
pendent on coal. 

A. Yes for it takes three and a half tons 
of coal to smelt one ton of iron, and twenty 
tons to make one ton of steel. 
^Q. What is coal? 

\A. A mineral fuel, consisting of carbon 
more or less impure, the purest is anthracite, 
which consists of more than 90 per cent of 
carbon, it is obtained by mining. 

Q. Is coal produced in proportionate 
quantities to iron ? 

A. Nearly jso. In 1845, Great Britain, 
Belgium, the United States, France anH 
Prussia, produced 48,500,000 tons; of this 
was produced by 

Great Britain, - - 31,500,000 tons, 
Belgium, - - - 4,900,000 " 



14 

United States, - - 4,500,000 tons, 

France, - - - 4,100,000 " 
Prussia, - - 3,500,000 " 

Q. What is the estimated value of coal 
produced annually by the^e five countries ? 

A. £30,000,000 sterling, or $ 145,200,000, 
which is six times the amount of gold and 
silver produced in North and South America, 
and Russia. 

Q. Is a country possessing coal, then, 
richer than one possessing gold and silver ? 

A. Yes, both morally and physically : phy- 
sically, by the products obtained through its 
agency, and morally, by the habits of indus- 
try induced thereby. The annual produce 
of the British coal mines is estimated at 
$96,000,000, and of iron produced through 
its agency, $ 40,000,000 at the furnace, pr 
in the rough state, and from a portion of 
that, $ 82,000,000 of manufactured articles, 
of iron and steel. 

Q. What effect has the production of coal 
on manufactures in general ? 

A. It is the foundation and principal source 
of all manufacturing and commercial pros- 
perity, and the most essential agent of all 
industry. — McCulloch. 

Q. How is it so ? 



15 

A. Coal produces iron and steel and steam, 
of them, and by them, are manufactured tools 
and machinery, by the agency of these the infi- 
nite number of fabrics in use by man are 
wrought. Iron and steam are also the agents 
in dispersing these fabrics and thus are at once 
the producers and the vehicles of production. 

Q. Then is Great Britain indebted to her 
coal for her manufacturing pre-eminence ? 

A, Yes, mainly so, for that led to her pro- 
duction of iron and invention of the steam 
engine, and thence to tools, machinery and 
manufactures in general. 

Q. What is the condition of the United 
States as regards these elements of w^ealth 
and pov^er ? 

A. The United States possesses more than 
thirty times as much coal and iron as Great 
Britain, and more than twelve times as much 
as all Europe. Pennsylvania alone has 
14,500 square miles of coal lands, and Great 
Britain but 11,800. 

Q. To what extent has the production of 
coal and iron increased in Pennsylvania ? 

A. In 1820' there was but 365 tons of an- 
thracite coal produced throughout the state, 
in 1847 there was 2,982,000, and of iron was 
manufactured in 1828, 30,000 tons, and in 
1846, 370,000. 



16 



O. What amount of power is it tlioiight 
is obtained from steam ? 

A. It is estimated that steam furnishes to 
man, a force equal to IO5OOO5OOO of horses, 
or 60,000,000 of men. 



17 



Agricultural Products. 

Q. What is agriculture? 
A. The cultivation of the land in such 
manner as to make it yield more abundantly 
than it would without such cultivation. 

Q. What are they called and in what 
estimation should their employment be held, 
who are engaged in it ? 

A. They are called farmers, and their 
employment shoud be deemed the most 
ancient, honorable and important of all la- 
bour, as it is as ancient as Adam, as honor- 
able as the command of God can make it, 
and its importance can be only estimated by 
life itself. 

Q. In what does their labour principally 
consist ? 

A. In manuring, ploughing, sowing, har- 
rowing, reaping, harvesting, threshing, i&c. 

Q. What are the chief articles of their 
production ? 

A. All kinds of corn, pulse and esculent 
roots for man, and grasses for cattle. 

Q. What is corn ? 

A. Any kind of grain or bread stuff, includ- 
ing wheat, rye, oats, barley, rice, and 
2' 



18 

maize, or indian corn, but applied exclusively 
to the latter in the United States. 

Q. What are we to understand by corn 
as used in the scriptures ? 

A. Wheat is generally intended where we 
read "corn," but never indian corn or maize, 
as that was not known till after the time of 
Columbus.* 

a. What is pulse ? 

A. Peas and beans and other seeds that 
grow in pods. 

Q. What are esculent roots ? 

A, Any root that is good for food, as pota- 
toes, turnips, carrots and beets. 

Q. What is horticulture ? 

A. The cultivation of orchards or fruit 
trees, as apples, pears, peaches and plums. 

Q. What is floriculture ? 

A. The cultivation of flowering shrubs for 
the sake of the blossoms ; grounds devoted 
to that purpose, are called nurseries. 

Q. What do animals in general live upon ? 

A. Some on grass and seeds, as horses and 

* (Should any exception he taJcen to this hu??ihle attempt to correct a 
contracted^ not to say misapplication of an important term^ it may be 
urged that where a word is used in a sense at variance with, if not in 
utter defiance of acknowledged standards, there can he no valid objec- 
tion raised to the correction of such error, especially where it becomes 
no less necessary to a true reading of the scriptures than essential to a 
perfect understanding of the noble liierature of our language.) 



19 

cattle, these are called graminivorous, (from 
gramen^ grass,) others on herbs, fruit, 
and the tender branches of trees, these are 
called herbivorous, and some on the flesh of 
other animals on which they prey, and are 
called carnivorous, (from caro^ flesh, and 
voro^ to devour.) 

a. What does man live upon? 

A. Upon bread made of flour, upon the 
flesh of animals, upon the fruits of trees, and 
the leaves and roots of vegetables. 

Q. What is flour ? 

A. Grain, generally wheat, ground to the 
finest powder and carefully sifted. 

Q. What is the manner of making flour ? 

A. It is made in mills, generally worked 
by water power, consisting, with other ma- 
chinery, of two circular stones, like large 
grind stones, laying on their sides one on the 
other, the under or nether mill stone being 
a fixture, the upper works round upon it, the 
wheat descends through the centre and is 
crushed between them, the flour then es- 
capes by grooves cut from the centre to the 
edge of the stones. 

Q. What other process does it pass 
through ? 

A. It is sifted through fine cloth which 
separates the husk or bran from the flour. 



20 



this is called bolting, it is then put in bar- 
rels and is fit for use- 

Q. What proportion of flour does it take 
to make good bread ? 

A. It takes fifteen pounds of flour to make 
twenty pounds of bread. 

Q. What is the weight of a barrel of flour ? 

A. One hundred weight and three quar- 
ters, er one hundred and ninety-six pounds. 

Q. What is an hundred weight ? 

A. One hundred and twelve pounds. 

Q. Why is that number adopted ? ^ 

A. Because it is capable of being divided 
to a lower number than any other, the per- 
fect hundred is divisable no lower than by 
4, 25, 104 by 8, 13, while 112 can be divi- 
ded by 16, 7, it is therefore adopted for its 
convenience. 

Q. What is rice ? 

A. A grain, the wheat of the East Indies, 
it is grown in most warm climates and very 
extensively in the southern parts of the Uni- 
ted States, it is cultivated in marshy lands 
partially under water, and forms the princi- 
pal article of food for all the nations of East- 
ern Asia. 

Q. What is sugar ? 

A. It is the principle of sweetness called 
saccharine, of which nearly all plants con- 



21 

tain a portion, but abounding most in the 
sugar cane. 

Q. What is the sugar cane ? 

A. A plant of the rush species, growing to 
the height of Yrom five to ten feet, it is cultiva- 
ted in the East and West Indies, in the south- 
ern portion of the United States and in part 
of South America. 

0,, How is sugar obtained from the cane ? 

A. When*the canes are ripe they are cut 
down and placed in a mill and crushed with 
heavy wooden rollers covered with steel, the 
juice being obtained, it is boiled till it be- 
becomes thick, which, when dried, becomes 
brown sugar. 

Q. What is white or loaf sugar ? 

A. It is sugar from which all the molas- 
ses and impurities have been removed by a 
series of processes of boiling, filtering, drain- 
ing and crystahzing, which then becomes 
pure sugar. 

Q. What is molasses ? 

A. That part of the juice of the sugar 
cane which will not crystalize, or which 
boiling will not bring to a consistence more 
solid than syrup. 

Q. What is honey ? 

A. It is the sugar of various plants extract- 

2# 



22 

ed from their blossoms by the bees, and stored 
by them for their winter food. 

Q. What is chocolate ? 

A. A beverage prepared from a paste 
made from the cacao nut and sugar. 

Q. What is the cacao nut ? 

A. A nut growing in the West Indies, it 
is about the size of an almond and is produced 
from eighty to one hundred iy a pod, the 
nut simply crushed will make an excellent 
beverage and is called cacao. 

Q. VVhat is coffee ? 

A. The berry of a shrub, a native of 
Arabia, where the Mocha coffee (a port on 
the Red Sea,) comes from, it is now most 
extensively cultivated in the West Indies 
and in Java. 

Q. What is the character of the plant ? 

A. It is an evergreen, with leaves resem- 
bling the laurel and its blossoms white like 
the jessamine, the berry is at first a bright 
scarlet but changes to a dull red, and after 
being picked and dried, it becomes a dirty 
white. 

Q. What is tea ? 

A. The leaves of a plant grown exclusively 
in China, it is an evergreen, the leaves are 
long and narrow with jagged edges, and the . 
blossom resembles the dog rose. 



23 

Q. How are they prepared for use ? 

A. They are gathered one by one and are 
rolled up over hot plates and fanned while 
drying to make them crisp, they are then 
packed in boxes or chests lined with lead to 
preserve the purity of their flavour. 

Q. What is black pepper ? 

A. The fruit of a climbing shrub, cultivate 
ed round poles like hops, it grows in the 
East and West Indies and bears white 
blossoms which produce bunches of red ber- 
ries like currants, after drying by the sun 
they turn black. 

Q. What is mustard ? 

A. A plant that grows to a considerable 
size, when compared with the smallness of 
its seed, which is no larger than a pin's 
head, and for this reason, selected by Christ 
for a parable, the^blossom is yellow and the 
seed is ground to yellow flour which is the 
mustard used at table. 

Q. What is ginger ? 

A. The root of an aromatic plant grown 
chiefly in the West Indies, resembling the 
flag in form and size, it is much valued as a 
spice and a medicine. 

Q. What is cinnamon ? . 

A. It is the inner bark of an aromatic tree I 



24 

of the same name, growing in the East In- 
dies and is a valuable spice. 

Q. What are cloves ? 

A. Aromatic fruit of a large tree whose 
leaves resemble the laurel, the fruit is green 
at first but ripens brown, it is brought from 
Ceylon and other parts of India. 



25 



Iliscellaiieous Products. 

Q. What is Indian rubber or caoutchouc ? 

A, The dried or concrete juice of a tree 
that grows in South America and the East 
Indies, it is obtained from the tree by making 
an incision in the bark whence the juice is- 
sues and hardens on exposure to the air, it 
is sometimes but erroneously called a gum. 

Q. What is gutta percha ? 

A. It is a similar production to caoutchouc 
and obtained in the same manner from a 
tree that grows in abundance on the Island 
of Singapore. It was first discovered in 
1842, by Dr. W. Montgomerie, it is a Malay 
name, gutta, meaning the juice, and percha, 
the tree from which it is obtained. 

Q. What are its peculiar qualities ? 

A. In thin slices if is semi-transparent and 
excessively tough, having much the appear- 
ance of horn, at ordinary temperature it is 
non-elastic and as hard as wood, by putting 
it in hot water it becomes exceedingly duc- 
tile and may be kneaded or pressed to any 
shape, which it retains upon cooling, without 
contraction and acquiring its original hard- 
ness. 



26 

Q. In what other respect does it differ 
from caoutchouc ? 

A. It is unUke Indian rubber, by being in- 
soluble in linseed or any of the fixed oils and 
scarcely at all affected by any unctious sub- 
stance, this property renders it very valuable 
for driving bands for machinery, where it i& 
constantly brought it contact with oils and 
grease. 

Q. What is indigo ? 

A, A vivid blue dye procured from a shrub 
growing in the East Indies, it is obtained 
by cutting the plants down and placing them 
in water in a large vessel, as the plant de- 
cays a sediment is formed, and this dried is 
indigo. 

Q. What is cochineal ? 

A. It is a small insect or fly found chiefly 
in Mexico, they are merely dried and when 
fit for use look like large grains of black tea, 
they make the most be'autiful scarlet dye, 
and it is with this that the red moroccos and 
turkey reds are dyed. 

Q. What is logwood ? 

A. It is a dye wood, the tree grows in the 
West Indies and obtains a great height, the 
colour is extracted by water and produces 
a deep red or purple, it is used as a basis 
for copperas in dying black. 



27 

ia. What is turpentine ? 

A. The resenous juice of the long leaved 
pine tree growing in North CaroUna and 
some other of the southern States, it is ob- 
tained by making incisions in the tree and 
placing vessels to receive the juice, the 
same tree produces resin, tar and pitch. 

Q. What is sponge ? 

A. A soft marine substance believed to be 
animal, found sticking to rocks or shells, it 
is obtained on the coast of Barbary and 
other parts of the Mediteranean, 

Q. What is mother of pearl ? 
. A, The inside coating of shells used for 
inlaying and ornamenting handles. 

Q. What is ivory ? 

A. The tusks of the elephant which he 
sheds once, they are brought from Africa, 
and from the Island of Ceylon and other 
parts of the East Indies, and sometimes 
weigh two hundred pounds. 

Q. What is tortoise shell ? 

A. The horny covering of the tortoise, it 
is principally obtained from a large spec'ies 
called the indian tortoise, measuring some- 
times four feet in length. 

Q. How is it obtained ? 

A. The natives of the Eastern Islands 
suspend the animal while alive over a fire, 



28 

until the shell is loosened, it is then set at 
liberty without its coat. 

Q. What is camphor ? 

A. A white shining gum with a powerful 
scent, it is procured from a tree that grows 
in the Islands of the East Indies. 

Q. What is whalebone ? 

A. A gristly bone extracted from the 
mouth of the whale, remarkable for its elas- 
ticity. 

Q. What is isinglass '! 

A. A transparent gelatinous substance 
prepared from the membranes of a large 
fish like a sturgeon. 

Q. What is salt ? 

A. A saline mineral, one of the great ne- 
cessities of man. and with which Providence 
has plentifully supplied him. 

Q. How is it obtained ? 

A. It exists as vast rocks in the earth and 
is obtained by mining, or from springs called 
brine springs, passing through such rocks 
and obtained by evaporating the water from 
thfe salt. It is also obtained the same way 
from sea water. 

Q. What is starch ? 

A. A sort of paste made from wheat flour 
or potatoes, the flour is steeped in water. 



29 

which forming a sediment, is then dried and 
becomes starch. 

Q. What is soap ? 

A. A compound of grease and alkah, the 
alkali being the cleansing ingredient and the 
grease serving to soften or weaken its effects. 

Q. What are alkalies ? 

A. The fixed salt of plants or any vegeta- 
ble substance obtained from their ashes. 
Potash is obtained from forest trees and 
soda from marine plants. 

Q. How is potash obtained ? 

A. Hard woods are burned to ashes from 
which the salt is extracted by water, and 
the water is then evaporated by boiling in 
pots. Pearl ash is purified potash. 

Q. What is charcoal ? 

A. Wood burnt until it has neither smell 
nor taste, and called by chemists carbon, 
it is united with nitre and sulphur in forming 
gunpowder. 

Q. What is cork? 

A. The bark of a tree of the oak species, 
chiefly grow^n in Spain, Italy, and the south 
of France. 

Q. How is it obtained ? 

A. It is stripped from the tree in pieces 
about four feet by two, it is then laid in a 
pond or ditch and pressed with heavy 



L_ 



30 



weights to flatten it. Before cutting up it 
is placed on a kind of gridiron and a fire 
made under it and burnt on both sides to 
harden it. 

Q. What is paper ? 

A, It is one of the great inventions of 
man, being a most important agent in dis- 
pensing knowledge, it is made from linen and 
cotton rags and derives its name from pa- 
pyrus, an Egyptian plant of which the an- 
cients made leaves to wTite on. 

Q. How is it manufactured ? 

A. The rags are put into a vat or trough 
with water, in w^hich a wheel with long iron 
spikes are made to revolve, this tears the 
rags to pieces reducing them to a fine pulp. 

Q. How is this pulp converted into sheets 
of paper? 

A. A sufficient quantity of the pulp is 
taken up in a square mould with a wire 
gauze bottom like a seive, and the water 
being drained off* it is turned out on to 
felt or w^oollen cloth and pressed and dried, 
this makes a single sheet, but it is also made 
in great lengths and wound round a series of 
rollers and cut into sheets w^hen dry. 

Q. Of what is paste board made? 

A.' It is made of old junk, that is, the old 
rope and rope yarn from the rigging of 



31 

ships, it is made similar to paper and when 
dry glazed and pressed very hard ; there is 
an inferior kind made of straw. 



32 



Of Wealth. 

Q. What is wealth ? 

A. Wealth is the accumulation of the pro- 
ducts of nature, and of labor bestowed on 
necessary or useful purposes. 

Q. What are those products ? 

A. All things that are or may be used, to 
supply the necessities or the comforts or the 
luxuries of life. 

Q. What are most important of those pro- 
ducts ? 

A. Provisions, clothes, houses, utensils and 
furniture, the comforts principally consist in 
the abundance and quality of these ^ things, 
the luxuries consist in the elegancies and 
refinement known to modern civilization. 

Q. Then is wealth the direct consequence 
of industry ? 

A. It is the inevitable law of nature as 
regards nations and communities, and gene- 
rally so as regards individuals. 

Q. How is this fact proved ? 

A. By the evidence of history, showing us 
nations with a luxuriant soil and climate, 
and having had the treasures of the Indies 
laid at their feet, yet becoming poor because 



33 

unaccompanied by industry, while others 
with a less fertile soil, having industry only, 
have become rich and powerful and the con- 
trollers of the wealth of the world. 

Q, What is currency ? 

A. It is the medium of exchanging one 
man's possessions for the possessions of 
another and is called money ? 

Q. What is the nature of its operation ? 

A. A man receives it in exchange for the 

*product of his labor, and by it obtains the 

products of others, and this being acquiesced 

in by all, it becomes the current standard of 

value. 

Q. How many kinds are there ? 

A. Two, metallic and paper. 

Q. In what respect do they differ ? 

A. They are both alike but the represen- 
tatives of wealth, but gold and silver has the 
advantage of being imperishable, and from 
their limited quantities, of a fixed determinate 
value, while paper is easily destroyed and 
may have any conceivable value put upon it. 

Q. What advantages has paper over metal 
as a mediun of exchange. 

A. Paper can be transported from place to 
place with much greater facility, and as an 
equivalent or means of adjusting claims, is 
adopted to all the various modes in which 
payments are made. 3^ 



34 



Of Minerals. 

a. How many kinds of minerals are there ? 

A. AH minerals (that is, all earths, soils, 
stones, and ores or metals,) are divided into 
four classes : 

1. Earthy minerals, as soil, &c. 

2. Saline minerals, as salt, &c. 

3. Inflamrnahle minerals, as sulphur, &c. 

4. Metallic minerals, as ores, &c. 
Q. What is now known of earth ? 

A. It is found that there are not less than 
ten earths, quite different in their kind. 

Q, Which are the most common and im- 
portant ? 

A. The first is silex^ which forms one half 
the ground on which we walk, and it is the 
hard and glassy substance of sands and 
rocks. 

Q. What is the next earth in importance 
after silex ? 

A. lAme^ the earth which forms limestone, 
marble, chalk, gypsum, shells, and bones of 
animals. 

Q. What is the third earth in natural im- 
portance? 



35 

A. Alumine, and it forms all clays and 
soft earths, called argillaceous. 

Q. What are the other distinct earths ? 

A. There are seven others, known to che- 
mists as mixing with the others, and forming 
various substances. 

a. What are the other seven called ? 

A. Magnesia, barytes, strontites, zincon, 
glycine, yttria, and thorina. 

Q. Are earths found separate ? 

A. Very seldom ; but mingled together, 
they form all bodies, however various, which 
are called earthy or mineral. 

Q. Then there is no single element of 
f;;;irth? 

A. None ; but that which is commonly 
".ailed earth is a mixture of two, three, or 
more kinds, in various proportions. 

Q. What is stone ? 

A. Generally sediments or settlements of 
earthy substances once dissolved in water, 
and re-formed into stony strata by long 
pressure. 

Q. What are the small round stones or 
pebbles found in gravel, and scattered every- 
where? 

A. The parts of ancient rocks broken up 
by the sea, and worn round and smooth by 
the friction of tides. 



36 



Q. ^^Hiat is slate? 
. A blue rock, which is very soft when 
dug out of the quarry, and when hardened 
by exposure to the atmosphere it is split in- 
to thin squares. It is much used for the 
roofing of houses in Europe. 

Q. What are metals ? 

A. They are hard compact bodies, found 
as ores in mines under ground. The ores, 
which consist of the metal and other sub- 
stances, are prepared by burning, so that 
the chief metal is then obtained in a pure 
state. 

Q. What is the quality of malleability ? 

A. Malleability implies the being beaten 
by a hammer and put into shape without 
breaking in pieces ; it is opposed to brittle- 
ness. 

Q. What do we mean by calling a metal 
ductile ? 

A. Ductile signifies flexible, pliable. 
When a metal can be drawn out into wire, 
it is called ductile. 

Q. What is sfold ? 

A. It is one of the precious metals, so cal- 
led from being the universal standard of val- 
ue. It is the most beautiful, scarce and im- 
perishable of all the metals ; it is alike un- 



37 

changed and unaffected by any exposure to 
the atmosphere, in common fire, or by the 
action of the most powerful acids, except ox- 
ygenated muriatic acid, which dissolves it. 

Q. What other remarkable quaHties does 
it possess ? 

A. It is so extremely malleable and duc- 
tile, that one grain, or the four-hundred and 
eightieth part of an ounce, can be made to 
cover 50 square inches, by beating it into 
leaf, or the same quantity made into wire, 
(that is silver with a gold surface, and of 
which gold lace is made) can be extended 
to the length of 345 feet, 6 inches. 

Q. Where is it found? 

A. It has been mostly found in the warmer 
cHmates, as Mexico, Brazil and Peru, the 
East Indies, and in Africa. It has also been 
found in the Carolinas and Georgia, and 
more recently in California, where it is gen- 
erally found among the sand and mud of ri- 
vers and beds of former water courses, in 
the pure state, and in the shape of small flat 
pebbles. 

Q. What is silver ? 

A. The other precious metal, much less 
scarce than gold and possessing some of the 
qualities of gold, in a less degree. It is found 



38 

in numerous parts of the world, mostly ad- 
mixed with other ores and minerals. 

Q. What is mercury, or quicksilver ? 

A. A metal, which in its natural state, is 
fluid, like liquid silver. It is so extremely 
subtile and volatile, as to render it difficult 
to hold or confine, and to entirely evaporate, 
at a heat a little above boiling water. It is 
obtained from mines in Spain, Italy and Hun- 
gary, sometimes pure, but mostly combined 
with other minerals. 

Q. What is its use ? 

A. It is used to refine gold and silver, with 
which it readily combines, attracting and se- 
parating the metals from their impurities. 
It is also used for silvering mirrors. The 
glass is laid on a level table and tin foil spread 
over it ; the coating of mercury is then put 
on and the whole pressed with heavy weights, 
the mercury combines with the tin and re- 
mains adhering to the glass. 

a* What is tin ? 

A. A metal principally obtained in Corn- 
wall, in England, and Malacca, in the East 
Indies. It is very soft and malleable. 

Q. What is it principally used for ? 

A. As a coating to iron and copper. Tin- 
plate is sh^t iron dipped in tin, with which 
it becomes perfectly coated : the various 



39 

utensils called tin, are made of this plate. 
It is also much used as foil. 

Q. What is copper? 

A. A ductile metal, valuable for its tough- 
ness and comparative freedom from corrosion 
or rust in water, and for these reasons, much 
used in ship building : the planks being fasten- 
ed withcopper nails and the bottoms sheathed 
with sheet copper. 

Q. 'What is brass? 

A. A compound metal of copper and zinc, 
which, rendering it much harder, makes it 
more adapted lo many purposes, than cop- 
per. 

Q. What is lead ? 

A. It is the softest and most easily melted 
of all the metals : it is used for water pipes 
and for the roofs and gutters of houses and 
is found in numerous parts of the world. 

Q. What is loadstone? 

A. An ore of iron, which, suspended from a 
point, always points to the north ; from this 
peculiar quality, it is invaluablE in forming 
the mariner's compass. 



40 



Of iSpecific CrraTities. 

Q. What is the weight or density of the 
several metals, as compared with water ? 

A. Taking water as 1, gold is 19 J: that 
is, I9i times heavier than water, mercury is 
13 J, lead is Hi, silver 10|, copper 8f, iron 
near 7^, and tin a trifle over 7J. 

Q. Which is the lightest of all wood ? 

A. Cork is the lightest of woody matter, 
and is 4 times lighter than water. 

Q. What is the heaviest and lightest of all 
liquids ? 

A. Mercury is 13J times heavier than wa- 
ter, and ether is only three quarters of the 
weight of water. 

Q. How much heavier is water than air? 

A. Water is 830 times heavier thtin air. 

Q. What is the lightest of air known bo- 
dies? 

A. Hydrogen gas, which is above 14 times 
lighter than air, and 12,000 times lighter 
than water. 

Q. How many quarts of hydrogen gas 
would it require to weigh as much as one 
quart of water ? 

A. 12,000 quarts. 



41 



I. How many quarts of air to make the 
ight of one quart of water ? 
i. 830 niiarts. 



Q 

A. 830 quarts 



42 



Phenomena of Clouds, Rain, Etc. 

Q. What are clouds ? 

A. They are steam, fogs, or vapours of wa 
ter, raised from the seas, lakes, and rivers b\ 
naturatheat, called evaporation. 

Q. What is evaporation ? 

A. Heat, whether proceeding from the sun 
or a fire, causes the lighter particles of wa- 
ter to fly off, or evaporate in the air. The 
vapour thus produced, on rising into the cold- 
er regions of the air, is condensed into 
clouds. 

Q. Have not the clouds regular forms. 

A. Yes. There are large round masses 
of clouds, called cumulus clouds ; straight 
flat clouds, called stratus clouds ; and feath- 
ery clouds, called cirro-stratus, or cirro- 
cumulus. 

Q. Are there not rain clouds ? 

A. Yes ; and they are called nimbus clouds. 
A nimbus is when a straight or stratus cloud 
passes into a round cumulus cloud : this then 
falls in rain. 



43 

Q. What causes hail ? 

A. When the drops are formed and pass 
through a colder part of the atmosphere, 
they freeze and fall as hail. 

Q. What makes it snow? 

A. Such a degree of cold as freezes the va- 
^>our of the cloud before it has formed itself 
^fnto drops, 

Q. What becomes of all the rain that falls 
\rom the condoned clouds ? 

A. Part of it penetrates the ground and 

renders it fertile ; part sinks to clay strata, 

and rises as springs; and part runs to the 

lowest ground, and forms brooks and then 

* rivers, which flow to the sea. 

Q. Why is rain water fresh, since it rises 
from the salt sea. 

A. Because the heat, which evaporates wa- 
ter, does not evaporate salt, so that the va- 
pour from salt water is fresh. 

Q. What quantity of rain falls in a year 
from the clouds ? 

A. As much as would be equal to 20 or 30 
inches in depth, in temperate climates, and 
from 80 to 200 in hotter climates. 

Q. How high are the clouds ? 

A. Some are 6 or 7 miles high, others 
about a mile ; some touch the tops of the hills, 
and others, as fogs, touch the level ground. 



44 

Q. What is a rainbow ? 

A. It is an apparent arch, of various col- 
ours, seen in the sky when the sun shines dur- 
ing rain. It is always opposite to the sun, 
being caused by the reflection of the sun's 
rays on and in drops of rain. 

Q. What is dew ? 

A. It is condensed water from the atmos- 
phere, by the coldness of plants and other mat- 
ter on the 'surface of thefearth. Water is 
taken up through the heat of the day, by 
evaporation, and the earth obtains it back 
again, by imparting sufficient coldness for its 
condensation at night. 

Q. Can you give an illustration of it ? 

A. Yes. By putting a piece of ice or iced 
water in a tumbler, water will soon be seen 
to form on the outside of the glass ; this is 
often called sweating, but it is the conden- 
sation of the watery parts of the air, by the 
coldness of the glass imparted by the ice; 
as by the grass at night, the same thing takes 
place on window panes, when the outside air 
is much colder than the inside. 



45 



Of the Elements, Senses^ and Colours. 

Q. What are the elements ? 

A. They used to be called four ; earth, 
air, fire, and water ; but they are now found 
to be far more numerous. 

Q. What are the five natural senses ? 

A. Seeing, hearing, smelling, feehng and 
tasting. The eye is the organ of seeing, the 
ear of hearing, the nose of smelling, the pal- 
ate of tasting, ^nA feeling is a sense spread 
over the whole body, but particularly exer- 
cised in the fingers. 

Q. What are the seven primary colours ? 

A. Grimaldi, an Italian Philosopher, dis- 
covered that a single ray or stream of light 
consists of seven different colours ; namely, 
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and 
violet ; but late discoverers reduce them to 
red, yellow, and blue. 



4^ 



46 



or Heat. 

Q. What is heat ? 

A. The great motion of the atoms of a bo- 
dy, so that when another body is brought 
mto contact it suffers the same degree of 
motion in its atoms. It is called by chemists 
caloric. 

Q. What is cold ? 

A. The absence of the degree of motion 
which causes heat. Every body is cold in 
whose particles there is less motion than in 
another body with which it is compared. 

Q. Why do bodies feel hot to the hand ? 

A. Because their atoms, or small parts, 
are in greater motion than the atoms of the 
fingers or hand. 

Q. Why do bodies feel cold to the hand ? 

A. Because their atoms are in less motion 
than the atoms which compose the hand. 

Q. How do we know that heat is the mo- 
tion of atoms ? 

A. Because we make our hands hot by 
striking them together, or on any surface, 
and make a nail hot by striking it with a 
hammer. 



47 

a. What are atoms/' 

A. The smallest particles of which bodies 
are composed, 

Q. What is meant by degrees of heat ? 

A. It has reference to the scale on the ther- 
mometer, an instrument to determine the 
amount of heat, by the expansion of mercury. 
A certain degree of heat is generally stated 
as so many degrees of Fahrenheit, the instru- 
ment having been invented by that Prussian 
Philosopher. 

Q. What is the operation of the instru- 
ment ? 

A. It consists of a glass tube inserted in a 
hollov^ ball of glass. The ball is filled w^ith 
mercury and also partly up the tube, the air 
being entirely excluded and the tube closed or 
sealed. As there is no room for the mercu- 
ry to expand, but up the tube, its height there 
denotes the exact temperature to which it is 
exposed. 

Q. What is the degree of the natural heat 
of the hand ? 

A. About ninety-eight degrees, the heat of 
boiling water being two-hundred and twelve 
degrees, and the freezing point being thirty- 
two degrees. Bodies therefore feel hot or 
cold, as above or below ninety-eight degrees, 
which is the heat of the hand. 



48 

Q. How is an animal body kept warm 
when the thermometer is at or below thirty- 
two degrees, the freezing point ? 

A. By breathing ; the air inspired parting 
with its motion to the blood in the lungs, and 
warming the blood. 

Q. Why does exercise warm us ? 

A. Because we breathe more in exercise 
than in sitting still, twice or thrice as much ; 
and therefore in cold weather we jump about, 
to warm ourselves by quicker and hstrder 
breathing. 

Q. Why do we wear clothes to keep us 
warm ? 

A. Because clothing, especially woollen 
garments, obstruct the escape of the heat 
from the skin. 

Q. Is there no warmth in clothing ? 

A. None in the clothing itself We gene- 
rate or produce heat by breathing, and then 
more clothing obstructs the escape of the 
heat and returns it to our bodies. 

Q. What is steam ? 

A. Steam is water evaporated with such 
rapidity as to become perceptible, and if con- 
fined, to produce a force. 

Q. Can we convert the steam into water 
again? 

A. Yes, by its coming in contact with the 
cold, it is condensed to drops of water again. 



49 

Q. What is ice ? 

A. It is water changed by the absence of 
heat, from its natural liquid state into a solid ; 
and becomes liquid again by the application 
of heat. 

Q, What is distillation ? 

A. The evaporating the spirituous parts of 
liquors by means of heat, and condensing 
them again into spirituous liquids. 



5(r 



Of Gases, &c. 



Q. What is the motion supposed to exist in 
gases ? 

A* It cannot be exactly proved, but behev- 
ed to be circular, or small orbits, created by 
projection and reaction. 

Q. What are solids thought to be ? 

A. Fixed matter with small interstices of 
gas. 

Q. What are liquids? 

A. Atoms disunited and floating in gases. 

Q. What are gases ? 

A. Fluids so excited, as that the vapours, 
by reaction in the space, become atoms in or- 
bits in intense motion. 

Q. How can we clearly understand all 
this? 

A. By attending to the precise meaning of 
the terms used. We can understand any- 
thing if we know the exact meaning of the 
words employed. 

Q. What is coal, or hydrogen, gas. 

A. It is the same as that which makes 
flame in fire, and is now in general use, in 
cities, to lighten streets and houses. 



51 

Q. How is it made and conveyed through 
a city. 

A. It is made at gas works ; the fuel is put 
in large iron boxes called retorts, and expos- 
ed to the heat of a furnace ; pipes convey the 
gas from these retorts to a large reservoir of 
water, through which it passes to purify it, and 
from thence, by pipes, throughout the city. 

Q. What is smoke ? 

A, It is the steam of burning matter, ex- 
pelled by lower degrees of heat, than would 
convert it into fire and flame. 

Q. What is flame ? 

A. The union of the oxygen in the air, with 
the hydrogen which is excited and expelled 
from highly heated fuel. 

Q. What is soot ? 

A. Soot is condensed smoke, which has been 
exhaled by the heat of the fire and not burnt. 

Q. What is meant by a draft to a fire ? 

A. It is causing more air to pass to the ex- 
cited hydrogen, and of course more of the oxy- 
gen in the air, and therefore producing more 
fire and flame. 

Q. Does coal and wood and other combus- 
tibles contain hydrogen. 

A. Yes, or they would not make fire and 
flame. The heat expels the hydrogen with 
force, and it then unites with the oxygen of 
the atmosphere. 



52 

Q. Then lighting a fire means exciting the 
hydrogen in the coal or wood. 

A. Yes ; and this hydrogen then unites 
with the oxygen in the air, and forms the va- 
pour of water. 

Q. What, is water formed by burning ? 

A. Yes; it is the forming of the water 
which causes the burning, for the hydrogen 
and oxygen gases, which filled a large space, 
are, as water, reduced to a very small bulk, 
and the motion in the gases is then distri- 
buted as heat. 

Q. But what makes the light, and how is it 
distributed ? 

A. To make light there must be carbon, or 
fine charcoal, in the hydrogen ; and hence 
the gas made in gas works is carhuretted 
hydrogen. 

a. Then oxygen and hydrogen make the 
heat when they form steam of water, and the 
carbon in the hydrogen makes the fine whitq 
light or flame ? 

A. Yes, there would be no light without 
carbon ; a little carbon makes a blue light, 
and a jsrreater quantity a white light. 

Q. Wbydoes the burning continue after an 
applied light has been removed ? 

A. Because the. oxygen and hydrogen in 
being fixed in watery particles part with suf- 
ficient motion to sustain the combustion. 



53 

Q. What are the results of burning ? 

A. Steam of water by the union of the oxy- 
gen and hydrogen; — white light and heat 
from the carbon heated and dispersed ; — and 
smoke or soot from the superfluous carbon. 

Q. Then all burning produces four 
things ? 

A. Yes ; water, light, heat, and smoke. 

Q. What effect has it on the air ? 

A. It abstracts the oxygen from the air ; 
and if in a close vessel, leaves only the nitro- 
gen, and the burning then ceases. 



54 



Of Air. 

Q What is the ah' which we breathe, — is 
not that a simple element? 

A. No ; it may be divided into two distinct 
elements, whose names and proportions ought 
to be remembered. 

Q. What are the names of the two ele- 
ments which compose air ? 

A. They are called oxygen, or vital air ; 
and azote, or life destroying air ; and the 
mixture of oxygen and azote forms the air 
which we breathe. 

A. And in what proportion are they mixed 
in forming our air ? 

A. Nearly as one part of oxygen to four 
parts of azote. 

Q. Is this proportion of one of oxygen to 
four of azote found to answer best ? 

A. It is then pure air, fit to support all ani- 
mal life, and the burning of fires and can- 
dles. 

Q. Then does life and fire depend on this 
mixture ^ 

A. Yes, entirely so; if the air is taken 
away, no animal can live, nor any fire burn 
as it usually does. 



55 

a. If the oxygen is removed, what then hap- 
pens? 

A. The animal dies and the fire goes out. 

Q. And the best proportions are one part 
of oxygen and four of azote ? 

A. Yes ; for if the oxygen is increased, 
health is impaired, and fires burn too fierce- 
ly ; and if the azote is increased, death ensues, 
and fires are extinguished. 

a. Is not azote called by some other name ? 

A. Yes, it is often called nitrogen. 

Q. Is the air entirely composed of these 
two gases, oxygen and nitrogen ? 

A. Not quite ; it contains another gas call- 
ed carbonic acid gas, and some vapour of 
water, but in small proportions. 

Q. Is there not another gas very opera- 
tive ? 

A. Yes ; there is hydrogen gas, supposed 
to be derived from azote or nitrogen, and re- 
markable for its lightness, being fourteen 
times lighter, than common air. 

Q. How does hydrogen appear ? 

A. It appears in mines, where it explodes, 
and often kills the miners. 

Q. How does carbonic acid gas appear ? 

A. In wells and other low places, where it 
sinks by its weight, and produces the choke- 
damp^ which suffocates those exposed to it. 



50 



Of Fire. 

Q. What is^r^, another of the ancient ele- 
ments? 

A. A compound of hydrogen and oxygen, 
the union of which produces the heat, light, 
and flame. 

Q. Where do they come from ? 

A. The hydrogen comes from the burning 
body, and the oxygen from the ain Air 
without oxygen gives no heat or flame, and 
a body which contains no hydrogen will not 
burn. 

Q. What bodies contain hydrogen? 

A. All woods, coals, vegetables, metals, 
spirits, &c. 

Q. Then fire is an effect, not a substance 
or an element by itself? 

A. Truly so. Fire is a mere effect of the 
union of two elements, oxygen and hydrogen 
gases. 



57 



Of T¥atep. 



Q, What is water, the other supposed el- 
ement ? 

A. Water is a compound of hydrogen and 
oxygen gas, just as air is a compound of oxy- 
gen and azote. 

Q. What proportions of hydrogen and oxy- 
gen gas form water ? 

A. Taken in bulk, or measure, water is one 
measure of oxygen to two of hydrogen ; or, 
by weight, there are eight parts of oxygen 
to one of hydrogen. 

Q. Why is this ? 

A. Because hydrogen is sixteen times light- 
er than oxygen. 

Q. Then are we to discard the four ele- 
ments of air, fire earth, and water ? 

A. Yes; because there are ten earths; 
because air is oxygen and azote ; because 
fire is an effect of oxygen and hydrogen ; 
and because water is a compound of oxy- 
gen and hydrogen. 

Q. This appears very important. 

A. Yes ; it is the basis of much knowledge, 
and ought to be well remembered. 
5* 



58 



Of Gas. 

Q. What is meant by gas ? 

A. Such a substance as air, which we feel 
by passing our hands quickly through it. 

Q. Try it with your hand. 

A. I feel a sort of wind. 

Q. Then, is that oxygen and nitrogen ? 

A. Yes. 

Q. We seem to live in it just as fish live 
in water ? 

A. Yes ; and fish do not see the water in 
which they live, more than we see the air in 
which we hve. 

a. How many gases are known ? 

A. Thirty or forty. Most solids and li- 
quids can be converted into gas, vapour, or 
steam, by sufficient heat. 

Q. Is it always done by heat ? 

A. No ; it is often necessary to present 
other bodies to separate the gases. 



59 



Of Bodies. 

Q, What are different kinds of bodies or 
substances ? 

A. All bodies are either solid, liquid, or 
gaseous, or partly one and partly the other. 

Q. Can they be converted from one state 
to another ? 

A. Yes ; by heat, solids can be rendered 
liquid, and liquids gaseous. And, by cold, 
gases can be made liciuid, and liquids made 
solid, 

Q. Give the example of water. 

A. Heat converts solid ice into water, and 
more heat converts water into steam or aque- 
ous gas. Then cold reconverts the steam 
into water, and more cold reconverts the wa- 
ter into ice. 

Q. Then water has three states? 

A. Yes ; it is ice, or hquid, or gaseous, as 
the heat is increased ; and it is gaseous, li- 
quid, or ice, as the heat is decreased. 

Q. In hot weather, why does not all water 
become steam ? 

A. Because it is pressed upon by the air 
with a force of fifteen lbs. to every square 



60 

inch of surface ; but when this pressure is 
anyhow removed, water becomes steam ? 

Q. But as the pressure of fifteen lbs. to 
the square inch usually continues, how^ does 
water become steam ? 

A. By increasing the heat or motion to 
two-hundred and twelve degrees of the ther- 
mometer, when the motion of the atoms of 
water becomes greater than the pressure of 
the air, and the water boils or rises in steam. 

Q. But will liquids boil at a lower degree 
of heat than two-hundred and twelve ? 

A. Yes; by expelling the air from the sur- 
face, and this is in actual practice in the mo- 
dern process of sugar refining; the sugar 
being boiled at one-hundred and fifty de- 
grees of the thermometer, in what is called 
vacuo, that is, the boiling vessel is enclosed 
in another from w^hich the air is exhausted, 
steam being used to communicate the heat. 



61 



Of Atmospheric Pressure. 

Q. What is this pressure of fifteen lbs. to 
the square inch called ? 

A. It is called atmospheric pressure, which 
is the weight of the atmosphere on the sur- 
face of the earth, being equal to a column of 
mercury, thirty inches in height, or thirty- 
four feet of water. 

Q. How is this fact ascertained ? 

A. By taking a glass tube, of thirty-one 
inches, or more in length, with one end per- 
fectly closed, then filling it with mercury and 
stopping the open end with the finger, turn- 
ing it upside down and plunging it into a ba- 
sin of the same liquid, when removing the 
finger, the mercury will remain balanced in 
the tube, to the height of thirty inches from 
the surface in the basin. 

Q. What is this instrument called ? 

A. The barometer. It is used to denote 
the changes in the weather, by the fluctua- 
tions in the weight or density of the atmos- 
phere, and also to measure the height of 
mountains, by the falling of the mercury, ac- 
cording to the elevation obtained. 



62 

Q. Is not this a very important cflscovery ? 

A. Yes ; as it explains some very wonder- 
ful phenomena in nature, such as the princi- 
ple of action of pumps and syringes, the walk- 
ing of a fly on the ceiling, and the true na- 
ture of that which is called suction. 

Q. Explain the action of a syringe. 

A. By the drawing back of the piston or 
sucker as it is called, while the point is un- 
der water, a vacuum, or space containing no 
air would be created, but the water rushes 
in and fills the space forced by the weight 
of the atmosphere on its surface : the dis- 
charge is simply by compression. 

Q. What is the action of the common 
pump, and what is it called ? 

A. It is called a lift pump, and consists of 
a pipe or tube in which a piston works as in 
a syringe, but having an opening or door in 
it, called a valve, opening upwards and ad- 
mitting whatever would pass up, but closing 
on all that would pass down. 

Q. What is the operation of this valve ? 

A. As the piston is lowered, the air in the 
pipe, between it and the top of the water, 
opens the valve and passes upwards ; upon 
raising the piston, the valve closes, and the 
water follows the piston as in a syringe, to 
the amount of air that has been removed. 



63 

Q. But the water is only partially raised — 
how is it made to flow out at the top ? 

A. By successive strokes the whole pipe 
is exhausted of air, and filled with water in- 
stead ; now, upon the descent of the piston, * 
the water passes through the valve, and on 
its rising lifts the water, which then flows out 
at the first opening. 

Q. Can water be raised to any height by 
this pump ? 

A. No. It can be raised only thirty-four 
feet, which is equal to the thirty inches of 
mercury in the barometer : thirty multiplied 
by thirteen and-a-half, the comparative 
weight of mercury to water, gives four hun- 
dred and five inches, which is thirty-three 
feet, nine inches, the exact height water can 
be raised by a lift pump, 

Q. Was this fact known before the discov- 
ery of the weight of the atmosphere? 

A. Yes; audit was this question which 
led Galileo and his pupil Toricelli, to the dis- 
covery and the invention of the barometer. 

Q. What is the diflference between a force 
pump and a lift pump ? 

A. In a force pump the piston has no open- 
ing, and is the same as in a syringe ; but the 
valve opening upwards, is a fixture in the 
pipe below, between this and the piston, is 



64 

another valve, in the side, and opening out- 
wards, permitting all to pass out but nothing 
to pass in. 

Q. What is the purpose of this side valve? 

A. By the first stroke of the piston the air 
is forced out at the side valve, and upon rais- 
ing it, the valve closes, and is held shut by 
the air, with a force of fifteen lbs. to the 
square inch, the lower valve now opens, ad- 
mitting the air from below, and its place is 
immediately supplied with water, as in the 
lift pump. 

Q. How is the force obtained ? 

A. When the pump becomes filled with 
water by successive strokes, the descent of 
the piston then forces the water out at the 
side valve, and it is by the power of the pis- 
ton being greater than the means of escape, 
that the water is compressed, and a force 
obtained, as in a common syringe : it is with 
this class of pump, that fire engines are fur- 
nished. 



65 



Conclusion* 

Q. What are the subjects which good 
children ought to learn, to fit them for re- 
spected men and women ? 

A. Every good child should learn to read, 
and to understand what he reads ; for books 
contain the wisdom of former ages, and are 
full of instruction and amusement.^^^rt^ 

Q. What is the use of writing? '^!z 

A. To correspond with our parents, rela- 
tions, and friends at a distance ; to keep ac- 
counts of trade, receipts and expenditure, 
and to record our own opinions. 

Q, What is the use of arithmetic ? 

A. It teaches us to count and express 
numbers, to calculate prdHu?;ts and results, 
and is called into exercise in the whole 
business of life. 

Q. What is the use of grammar ? 

A. It enables us to speak and write with 
correctness, and with due regard to the con- 
nexion of words with ctie another; for 
words vary as they have relation to other 
words. 
6 



66 

Q. What is the use of Greek and Latin? 

A. They are useful to finished scholars, as 
they illustrate many terms of science. 

Q. Is Latin or Greek, as taught in schools, 
spoken anywhere ? < 

A. Nowhere ; they are not living langua- 
ges, and are only to be met with in ancient 
books. 

Q. Are French, or Italian, or German, or 
Spanish useful. 

A. Yes ; they are living languages, spoken 
by great nations, and abound in very interest- 
^^gCto^^^w modern subjects. 

Q^is t" 
sary ? 



the knowledge of Geography neces- 



A. Highly so ; and no one can read even 
a common newspaper with understanding, 
who is ignorant of geography and of the 
study of maps. 

Q. Is history^useful ? 

A. Yes ; very useftal, very instructive, and 
very amusing. We learn by it all that hasr 
happened in the world before our time ; and, 
above all things, every youth should be 
versed in the history of his own country. 

Q. Is the study'of natural philosophy ne*-' 
cessary? ' 

A. Yes, to all whoVouldJpass through hfe^ 
with credit, and with the reputation of bein^ 



67 

well informed. No pastime is so agreeable 
as experiments and speculations on nature, 
and on^the causes of phenomena. 

Q. Is biography useful ? 

A. No reading is more so. It is a mirror 
for our own example, and every well educat- 
ed person should be familiar with the lives 
and actions of the great men of all ages. 

Q. Are studies in mathematics necessary ? 

A. Generally so ; and every young person, 
male and female, ought to be familiar with 
practical geometry ; and every young man 
should amuse himself with the deigppstra- 
tions iii> Euclid, and with problems ih^ge- 
bra. 

Q. Is poetry useful ? 

A. Yes ; so far as it embodies noble and 
useful sentiments, which excite to virtuous 
actions and public spirit. Milton, Young, 
Dryden, Pope, and Cowper pan never be too 
often read. 

Q. Is the art of drawing a desirable ac- 
quirement ? 

A. Yes, nothing more desirable ; it teaches 
us to observe and examine all objects that 
We see ; and it is an inexhaustible source of 
amusement to ourselves and gratification to 
our friends. 



68 

Q. What is the use of music ? 

A. It is the modifier of sound into melody 
and harmony, in accordance with our most 
refined perceptions; and is the most exqui- 
site pleasure of the mind known to man. It 
is in its practice and perfection the most 
agreeable of all pastime. 

Q. Is religion a subject for scholastic in- 
struction ? 

A. None is more so. Every child ought 
to be exercised in questions on the Old and 
New Testament ; and ought to be able to 
estimate the moral duties which are inculca- 
ted throughout the Sacred Writings. 

Q. What ought an educated boy to be fa- 
miliar with at fifteen ? 

A. He ought to read and write well, to be 
able to calculate in various rules decimally 
and to work simple equations in algebra ; he 
should be fanjiliar with English gram- 
mar and with some foreign language; be 
able to draw geometrically, and by hand; 
know geography, history, and biography; 
and be practised in book-keeping. 

Q. What ought a well educated girl to 
have learnt at fifteen ? 

A. She ought to read freely in prose and 
verse ; to write grammatically ; to be expert 
in arithmetic ; to be familiar in geography, 



69 

history, and biography; to be mistress of 
approved and desirable accomplishments; 
and, above all, to be ready at all kinds of 
needlework and housewifery. 



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